Archive for the ‘Automobile Shippers Special’ tag

It may not have been considered a success in its day – in fact, it didn’t even qualify for the Indianapolis 500, the race it was built for, in its two attempts – but the mid-engine Rounds Rocket remains one of the most fascinating Indy cars around, and its current owners plan to sell it and three other vintage Indy cars at auction later this month.

One of the highlights of the Milhous brothers’ collection in Boca Raton, Florida, the Rounds Rocket was initially conceived of by Nathan Rounds, a mysterious Los Angeles resident who claimed to have ties to Howard Hughes. In the late 1940s, he approached Lujie Lesovsky to build the mid-engine roadster, the first mid-engine rear-drive Indy roadster ever constructed, but his plans consisted of a sketch that ended just behind the cockpit; he left Lesovsky and master metalcrafter Emil Diedt to finish off the car, using a 270-cu.in. Meyer-Drake dual overhead-camshaft Offenhauser four-cylinder and two-speed manual transmission. They completed it in time for rookie Bill Taylor to attempt to qualify for the race in 1949. Sam Hanks and Bill Vukovich tried again in 1950, but none of the three succeeded, due to low speeds and a half-shaft failure. With the money being poured into the car, rumors swirled that Hughes was financing the car through Rounds, though the rumors were never confirmed. Put into storage in Beverly Hills after its second attempt, it didn’t re-emerge until Bill Harrah bought it nearly 20 years later. Following a restoration in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it appeared at the 1993 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance; the Milhous brothers added it to their collection five years later. RM, which will be conducting the auction of the Milhous brothers’ collection, estimates that it will sell for $250,000 to $350,000.

Illustrating the radicalness of a mid-engine Indy roadster is another offering from the Milhous brothers collection, the Russell Snowberger-built Automobile Shippers Special. Unlike the Rounds Rocket, the Automobile Shippers Special placed the 270-cu.in. Meyer-Drake Offenhauser in the conventional position ahead of the driver to actually qualify at Indy in 1946 (21st), 1947 (5th), 1949 (8th), and 1950 (22nd). For those successes, however, the car never finished the race: A broken pinion shaft sidelined it in 1946, it crashed out in 1947 and 1949, and a failed universal joint took it out of the race in 1950. Like the Rounds Rocket, it was treated to a restoration by Bob Smith Coachworks of Gainesville, Texas, and joined the Milhous collection in the late 1990s. RM has estimated that it will sell for $175,000 to $250,000.

Had the Rounds Rocket succeeded, it may have ultimately influenced Indy roadsters to go mid-engine much sooner than they did, yet the pattern for a successful Indy competitor evolved along a different path, resulting in cars like the Sarkes Tarzian Special, another front-engine, Meyer-Drake Offenhauser-powered, Lesovsky-built car. Commissioned in 1962 by Elmer and Mari George, Lesovsky built it in the predominant style of the day with an offset driveline. Elmer George then used it to qualify 17th for the 1962 Indy 500 (dropping out with a seized engine) and 28th for the 1963 Indy 500 (retiring after just 12 laps). Treated to a John Hajduk restoration in the early 1990s, it too joined the Milhous collection in 1998. RM has estimated that it will sell for $150,000 to $250,000.

Along with these three will be one more Indy car, a 1984 March Cosworth 84C driven by Teo Fabi, estimated to sell for $90,000 to $130,000.

All of the cars from the Milhous brothers collection will be offered without reserves. For more information on the auction, which takes place February 24-25, visit RMAuctions.com.

UPDATE (27.February 2012): With the auction results in, we see that three of the four cars mentioned here sold for prices smack dab within their pre-auction estimates. The Rounds Rocket sold for $275,000; the Automobile Shippers Special sold for $192,500, and the March Cosworth sold for $110,000. The outlier was the Sarkes Tarzian Special, which far exceeded its estimate, selling for $330,000.